Archive for May, 2009.
Likely you’ve noticed how easy it is to take on energy from other people. Inner Adventurers seem to do this quite often.
Recently, I hosted a pot luck for the group that I hike with. There were 18 people here at my home. Now before you think I’m crazy, I’ve found that I am much more comfortable being in my own home than going to someone else’s. And I knew everyone very well, so I realized I didn’t have to entertain at all. The guests would entertain themselves.
After doing a cursory cleanup, I wanted to dive right into bed. I couldn’t calm down. I took on a lot of energy that night, even in those favorable conditions. My whole torso was pulsing with energy. Albeit positive energy, it was still unnerving. I knew I’d have to disperse it before I could rest.
I focused in on the throbbing energy and broke it up so I could relax. It was such a relief to restore myself to holding just my own energy, erasing all that I’d taken on innocently.
Have you had a similar situation happen to you? Have you been captive to what your body is experiencing? It doesn’t have to remain that way.
Inner Adventurers are open people – spiritually, mentally, and energetically. Our bodies are meant to be the prime means by which we experience life. Still, it can be easy to take in any energy, whether pleaseant, harmful or disturbing to you.
What’s important to realize is that it doesn’t have to be that way. You can live a connected life without being connected to absolutely everything.
For more of what Sarah has to offer about living an inner-inspired life, visit InnerVantage
Have you ever wondered whether you are hearing your intuition or your ego? There is quite a difference between them.
Inner Adventurers have the natural ability to sense this difference. And it can be easy to discern.
Messages from your ego, or mind, are loud, strong and insistent. They come in a confident tone, as if this one choice were the only choice you have. They can also nag you as part of their insistent nature. Can you find your ego messages through that description?
Then there are the messages from your intuition. It prefers a softer, gentler tone. And they can be equally as confident, yet a bit foggier 
than your ego might express itself. These messages will also steer you out of your comfort zone or seem illogical some times. And they will usually only speak once. Could you now locate a moment of intuition?
Because they are softer, less frequent and often ask you to stretch, intuition can be easy to ignore. I implore you not to.
I’ve recently have been doing some personal growth work through the assistance of another coach. It’s deep work that calls up unpleasant things from my past so I can feel them and heal their scars. I willingly undertook the work, knowing that being on the other side of it was where I chose to be.
At times, I can’t answer my coach’s question in my rational mind. Yet, in the background, I hear my intuition giving me the answer I need to speak. So I’ve been following my intuition through this work, speaking things I never thought I’d hear myself say aloud to anyone. And my intuition has never let me down for what has come up is spot on in truth.
Inner Adventurers realize that life isn’t always logical or easy. They can sense their intuition and salve their ego. Navigating between these two, they find the sweet spot in which they live – grounded and connected to themselves and beyond through intuition while accepting ego messages and using them when they are fitting.
Where is your intuition guiding you today?
For more of what Sarah has to offer about living an inner-inspired life, visit InnerVantage
How’s your intuition? If you are an Inner Adventurer, chances are it is pretty active and reliable.
I find my intuition is a fabulous guide. And it’s been talking to me a lot lately. I’ve answered its call to read my e-mail earlier than usual in the morning. Or to shoot off a message to someone who crossed my mind. Or get up and do something else.
How often do you hear an inner call? What’s your response? The more you ignore it, the less it speaks. After all, would you continue to talk to someone who wouldn’t listen to you? The more you heed your intuition, the keener and more assertive it gets.
One client once told me a fantastic story about her intuition. She was driving on a dirt road in daylight. She couldn’t see too much of the landscape, so she was cautiously keeping her car toward the center of the road. And she didn’t expect to see any other cars, either.
Suddenly, her intuition was screaming at her. “Get right! Get right!” She was approaching a curve and couldn’t see around it. She steered to the right and just as she got a better view of the road ahead around the curve, another car was barreling at her. It would have been a major collision, for sure. Her intuition saved her life.
Would you have done the same?
Inner Adventurers are ripe with the inner call of intuition. It can come in the form of words and sound like a voice speaking to you. It could be a symbol or picture. Or it can simply be one of those “gut” feelings.
When you hear or sense it, I strongly suggest you answer it. Sometimes it will seem to be a bother, because you sense nothing from doing what it has asked of you. Those are the tests because it wants to know you are listening.
You can even call for its help. When you are in a quandary, talk to your intuition and ask it to point you in the best direction. You might be amazed how it can guide you!
If you are outwardly cautious, like many Inner Adventurers, start small. Answer its call for seemingly insignificant things. Get used to how it speaks to you. Then you can go for larger, more significant calls with greater aplomb.
Make your intuition your companion to make life less demanding.
For more of what Sarah has to offer about living an inner-inspired life, visit InnerVantage
In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.
Albert Camus (1913-1960) French Writer
I found this quote the other day and wanted to share it with you.
How do seasonal changes affect you? For me, it can be quite dramatic. Winter feels stark and unwelcoming. Spring is full of hopeful promise. Summer is playful and somewhat lazy while fall is industrious and colorful. I seem to flow through each season in nearly the same place as previous years.
That’s why Camus’ quote struck me. What if I wasn’t subject to these changes beyond my whim? What if I could find that playful, lazy feeling of summer anytime I wanted? What if…? 
Finding that summery warm and lighthearted part of you is part of being an Inner Adventurer. It’s there, even if you haven’t felt it in quite some time. Where do you feel it? Is it in your heart? Or your belly? Or somewhere else? Can you intensify its feeling so it is all over your body?
The Inner Adventurer knows the cold darkness of winter and the warm light of summer. They are seasoned at making the transitions through whatever encompasses them. While others may fear or distrust the darkness, the Inner Adventurer can throw open the door and welcome it. They know that winter cannot harm, for they can return to summer as they choose.
Find your invincible summer!
For more of what Sarah has to offer about living an inner-inspired life, visit InnerVantage
The audience I’ve worked with for the past 7 years are wonderful people. They are conscientious, good-hearted individuals who have the ability to sense and feel deeply.
It’s the sensing and feeling that often gets these folks down. It can be difficult to screen out or filter what they take in from others and the world around them. That can be a lot of energy to deal with. When day-to-day living gets demanding, it can befuddle and stymie them, not knowing how to process it or let it go.
I call this type of person “inner-directed.” In dealing with these folks, I noted that many saw the traditional labels of “introverted” or “highly sensitive” like an albatross to bear. Also, those labels imply a clinical diagnosis of a problem. That’s a downer, too. It can help them to feel as if they are a square-peg person living in a round-hole world. 
Being inner-directed is not a problem. Yes, we have a distinctly different experience of this world than so many others and it might not always be pleasant. Life isn’t always suppose to be happy and kind. It’s more about learning to find your place and unearth the gifts, talents and strengths you have…or what I call your Natural EdgeSM.
I believe it is a benefit and a privilege to be inner-directed. We don’t need a diagnosis. We simply want to be understood and accepted as we are, which is different than most other folks. The benefit and privilege come to the forefront when you peel away whatever is in the way of you simply being you. That means a different recipe for life than we see modeled in the world.
So what does this have to do with being an Inner Adventurer? Many inner-directed people naturally are great Inner Adventurers. Those who choose to work with what life has given them become those who dive within to harvest the gems and discover what they have to offer. That’s where one’s individual recipe is written. These are the Inner Adventurers and they likely are inner-directed, too.
Want to know more about being inner-directed? On May 18 at 2:00 PM Eastern time // 11:00 AM Pacific // 7:00 PM GMT, I’m going to be interviewed by Anne Walsh, a fellow coach from Galway, Ireland, about the gift of being highly sensitive and other inner-directed topics. If you want to join us on the call, you can register here to get all the details .
For more of what Sarah has to offer about living an inner-inspired life, visit InnerVantage
Recently, I got an e-mail message from a new InnerVantage subscriber. She was getting the series of special messages that comes at the start of her subscription. She wrote:
In reading your first two emails, I feel so understood. I feel like somebody really gets me without judging me. This feels so good. In spite of doing transformational work for five years and receiving lots of email information from coaches including HSP coaches, I’ve never felt this response to an email. I feel like maybe there’s a way I can thrive with this trait instead of hiding…I feel so encouraged reading these emails.
Gee, I sense how great she felt. She helped me feel pretty special, too, by sending the message.
There is a tendency for the Inner Adventurer to feel alone, as if no one else is like them. As a result, they can tend to cower and hide without even trying to see if anyone shares their traits. That mode of behavior, for certain, will leave someone all alone.
Feeling misunderstood comes from another source. It comes from expressing yourself and having others not appreciate where you are coming from. Many of these instances come from comparing ourselves to others and thinking we all have to be the same as each other. Tribe mentality, so to speak.
I remember when folks looked at me as if I had three heads. Sometimes it came from being so quiet and then speaking up. Other times, I shared what everyone else was ignoring or didn’t see. (Ah, a great HSP trait is sensing what others don’t quite get. How valuable!) The quizzical look you get when these things happen can make anyone feel as if they are flawed or different.
Now, I realize that I simply surprised others by being me. It wasn’t any flaw, but instead my strengths that surprised them. I don’t have to tuck my tail between my legs and creep away. Alternatively, I now choose to stand tall and proud for what I have to offer, even when no one else gets it.
Are you one who hides? Do you hold on to all your strengths instead of sharing them? Could you try to learn new ways of being that honor you and all you have to offer? If so, try a subscription at InnerVantage to start to find your Natural EdgeSM gifts, talents and strengths.
For more of what Sarah has to offer about living an inner-inspired life, visit InnerVantage
